he said he said a prayer for today's meeting then you have senator jon kyl, a republican, saying that the white house essentially walked away from $500 billion in cuts that the do sides had already agreed to so no one right now can point to any progress that these talks are achieving. >> pelley: senator mcconnell proposed a stopgap plan today in case they miss the deadline. what was that about? >> well, it's a pretty complicated plan, scott, and it essentially boils down to allowing the president to raise the debt limit in fits and starts over the next year and a half and essentially puts off any talk of spending cuts to a later date. the plan went over with a thud among house republicans who see this as giving in, but mcconnell says that he doesn't want to be a party to default and he certainly doesn't want republicans to be blamed if there is a default, scott. >> pelley: thanks, nancy. this deal to reduce the deficit could be huge. somewhere between $1 and $4 trillion. they're talking about taxes, social security, medicare, defense and most everyone agrees thisv it has to be done by